Census and HUD, October 27: September new home sales
Sales of new single-family homes ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 in September 2026. That is 0.6% below August (680,000) and 5.3% below September 2025 (714,000). The Census Bureau marks both changes as not statistically significant, so read them as "flat to slightly down", not as a sharp drop. NAHB counts sales for the year to date down 2.9%.
Builders had 476,000 new homes for sale at the end of September, 8.4 months of supply at the current pace. By NAHB's count 111,000 of them were already finished and waiting for a buyer. The median price was $400,400, 3.9% below a year ago; the average price, $472,800, was 6.7% lower.
The regions moved apart. Compared with September 2025, NAHB reports sales up 10.3% in the Northeast, down 0.7% in the South, down 8.2% in the Midwest and down 17.4% in the West.
Why a small contractor should care: a builder sitting on finished, unsold homes usually starts fewer new ones and pushes harder on subcontractor prices and payment terms. If you frame, hang drywall, lay floors, paint or do trim for builders, especially in the West or the Midwest, your schedule for the winter is where this shows up first. The next report comes out November 25.
What to do this week
- 01Count your booked work for the next 60 days and how much of it comes from builders. If one builder is most of it, that is the number to fix before winter.
- 02Ask each builder for the start dates of their next phases in writing, and agree on payment terms before you start, not after.
- 03Put the hours you free up into homeowner work: call back last season's estimates that never closed and answer new remodeling leads the same day.
Where WorkTime CRM helps with this
The Pipeline shows every homeowner lead and open estimate on one board, and Pipeline → Sources shows which sources brought leads and calls in the last 7, 30 or 90 days, so you know where to put more effort when builder work slows.
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